The investigation is still ongoing, and police are in the process of determining what weapon was used, as well as whether the victims were attacked in their sleep.
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A release from the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department said it was during that time that Dearman was taken by his father to surrender to authorities in Greene County. Inside the home were (6) six adults and (1) one 3-month-old infant.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich said the scene was the worst she had seen in her 20 years as a prosecutor.
Mobile County Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Burch, who called the crime scene “horrific”, said the case “appears to be domestic related”, but did not immediately say what Dearman’s relationship to the victims was.
Detectives are now examining the home, in the area of Prine and Jim Platt Roads. The victims have been identified as Robert Lee Brown, Justin Kaleb Reed, Joseph Adam Turner, Shannon Melissa Randall, and Chelsea Marie Reed, who was five months pregnant.
That didn’t stop Dearman from returning later in the evening and attacking the sleeping occupants where he used multiple weapons, including guns to slay his victims.
Police said a resident of the home called 911 between midnight and 1 a.m. on Saturday to report that Dearman was trespassing on the property.
When they got there, authorities said Dearman let Lester and the child go.
Derrick Dearman of Leakesville, Mississippi, was taken into custody after he walked into the Greene County Sheriff’s Office Saturday afternoon and confessed to the crimes, Burch said. Authorities described the scene as “horrific” and “gruesome”.
Police arrested a man, identified as Derrick Ryan Dearman, in connection with the incident. By Saturday afternoon, a woman reported to Citronelle police that she’d been kidnapped and escaped.
“He’s been cooperative”, Burch told the AP on Sunday.
He drove them across the MS state line to his father’s home, where police say Lester and the child were freed. Dearman is now expected to face six capitol murder charges in relation to the deaths.
Dearman was being held in a MS jail Sunday morning. Dearman and his father went to Green County Sheriff’s Office to turn himself in.
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Dearman now has an outstanding warrant in Mobile County for burglary.
